From demoted to dominant: What a difference a year made for the Homestead girls soccer team.

After winning just one game in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League last season and getting dropped into the league’s second division, the Mustangs only lost once this winter and ran away with the El Camino championship, their first title since 2001.

With more than half of the players back from last year’s group that went 1-7-4 in the De Anza circuit and 4-8-6 overall, coach Graeme Logie’s 2012 squad was virtually unbeatable. In fact, the Mustangs never lost in El Camino play, going 11-0-1 and outscoring opponents 43-4, and they entered the Central Coast Section championships this week with an overall record of 14-1-3.

Homestead’s excellent bounce-back season was rewarded with the No. 7 seed in the 12-team CCS Division I bracket. The Mustangs, back in the playoffs after not making the grade the past two seasons, were scheduled to host No. 10 Woodside (9-5-6) on Feb. 22. A win in that game would have landed them in the Feb. 25 quarterfinals opposite No. 2 seed St. Francis (14-3-3).

Coincidentally, this year marks the 20th anniversary of Homestead’s CCS D-I championship in 1992. The Mustangs, who had lost in the 1991 finals, won again in 1993.

Other challengers in the D-I field this season include the top three SCVAL De Anza finishers: champion and No. 1 seed Los Gatos (16-1-2), No. 3 Mountain View (14-2-3) and No. 5 Monta Vista (10-4-6).

The Matadors were set for first-round action Feb. 21 at No. 12 Lincoln of San Jose (15-4-1), the Blossom Valley Athletic League’s West Valley champion. The Monta Vista-Lincoln winner advanced to a quarterfinal bout against No. 4 Carlmont of Belmont (12-3-5).

Like St. Francis and Carlmont, Los Gatos and Mountain View were seeded directly into Saturday’s quarterfinals, the top-seeded Wildcats to tangle with either No. 8 Watsonville (12-6-2) or No. 9 Menlo-Atherton (11-5-4) and the Spartans to battle No. 6 Santa Teresa (13-4-3) or No. 11 Salinas (11-2-5).

Meanwhile, in the boys playoffs, The King’s Academy (13-5-1) was the only local squad to land a berth in one of the three 12-team tourneys.

The Knights, seeded No. 10 seed in Division III, were to play their first CCS playoff game since 2009 on Feb. 22 at No. 7 Scotts Valley. They needed to beat the Falcons, the runner-up in the Santa Cruz County Athletic League, in order to get a chance in Saturday’s quarterfinal round against No. 2 seed Burlingame (10-7-3), which finished second to Willow Glen in the D-II finals last year.

The SCVAL had four teams in the playoff field: De Anza champion Mountain View and El Camino champion Los Gatos in Division I and De Anza runner-ups Saratoga and Los Altos in Division II.

Like Homestead’s girls, the Los Gatos boys (12-2-5 overall) did not lose in El Camino play. The Wildcats closed their 9-0-3 league season with a 4-0 win over Cupertino on Feb. 15.

The schedule of venues and times for all CCS tournament games can be found at www.cifccs.org.

Homestead girls roll

By capping the league season with a 7-0 blitz of Wilcox on Feb. 15, Homestead earned wins or ties in all 16 matches since a 3-1 setback to Live Oak of Morgan Hill on Dec. 5. And the only blemish to Homestead’s El Camino record was a 1-1 tie at Fremont on Jan. 18. Since then, the Mustangs reeled off eight wins in a row, including 2-0 in a rematch with Fremont on Feb. 8.

Homestead also scored draws against a pair of non-league opponents–Soquel, 0-0 in December, and Monta Vista, 1-1 in mid-January, just before the Fremont tie.

Homestead’s balanced attack proved problematic for opposing defenses. With all but three players scoring goals in the regular season, it was risky business when opponents tried to key on any one Mustangs player.

Sophomore Emma Tyrnauer, who drilled a pair of goals in the El Camino finale against Wilcox, entered the CCS competition as the Mustangs’ leading goal scorer with seven. Junior Caitlyn Wong tallied six, while seniors Katherine Newton and Gabrielle Squarcia scored five each. Squarcia also delivered eight assists, giving her the team lead in points with 18.

Other contributors to the Homestead cause this season were senior Jamie Dodge, who shared captain duties with McCafferty and Newton, juniors Kristen Torres and Jasmine Parekh, sophomores Vida Pourmond and Isabella Stavoli and freshman Maylis Basturk.

Sophomore goalkeeper Daniele Ortiz benefited from stout defense in front of her, scoring six shutouts in the last seven league contests and 12 overall. She made 73 saves and let in just eight scores. Other than the three goals allowed to Live Oak, Homestead never allowed more than one to any team, outscoring opponents 52-8 in 18 games.

Freshman Casey Dry-den, a goalie on the junior varsity team this winter, was added to the varsity roster for the CCS tourney.

Matadors in again

It has been a long time since Monta Vista did not earn a berth in the CCS playoffs. The match with Lincoln this week marked the ninth year in a row that the Matadors competed in the D-I tournament.

Coach Alan Kute’s squad was a defensive-minded unit that permitted just 20 goals in 20 regular season matches this season. With junior Gal Haroush in goal, the Matadors closed De Anza Division play with four shutouts in a row, including scoreless deadlocks against league front-runners Los Gatos and Mountain View.

Junior Hadar Sachs paced Monta Vista scoring with 11 goals and five assists. Senior Gabby Ley had four goals and two assists for the Matadors, who took momentum into the playoffs by finishing the season 5-0-3 in its last eight games.

Six players scored five or more goals as The King’s Academy earned second place in the eight-team West Bay Athletic League.

Sophomore Michael Svozil scored nine goals and three assists to lead the Knights, who put together a 10-3-1 record in league play and a 13-5-1 overall slate. Senior Josiah Pekary was the points leader (24) for the Knights with seven goals and 10 assists. Other big offensive contributors were seniors Brian Bostrom (seven goals, five assists), Nick Altabet (five goals, six assists) and Jacob Shull (five goals, three assists). Freshman Emilio Gallegos made a strong impact during his first season with five goals and five assists.

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